Three local high school seniors received nominations from U.S. representative Sam Graves for entrance into United States military service academies. Each year, members of Congress are tasked with selecting qualified students from their respective districts to attend one of America’s prestigious military academies.
The 2018 list in Graves’ sixth district includes North Platte’s Austin Snook, Park Hill’s Jackson Turner and Park Hill South’s Ben Eason. Andrew Hipp — a Platte County resident who attends St. Pius X — was also included.
There were nine total nominations from Graves.
“North Missouri year in and year out has produced impressive candidates for our nation’s military academies,” Graves said. “This year is no exception. I am proud of all the young men and women who have sought out and received nominations, and I thank all of them for their willingness to serve this country. I know that each of the individuals who received a nomination will make North Missouri proud at their respective academies.”
Turner and Hipp were both nominated to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, while Eason’s was for the U.S. Naval Academy and Snook’s for the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Snook has served for three years on the student council at North Platte as well as four years of FBLA, baseball, basketball and football for the school. He is set to graduate first in his class and currently has a 4.11 weighted GPA.
Turner has displayed his leadership capabilities at Park Hill, elected as an Executive Council representative and captaining the school soccer team. He is set to graduate first in his class and currently has a 4.25 GPA.
Eason leads the Electromagnetic Panthers robotics team and serves on the student council. He is currently ranked first in his class with a 4.0 GPA.
The military academy nomination system is a very competitive process.
Various military academies hold extremely selective admission standards. To help in the nomination process, Graves created an Academy Nominations Review Board made up of service academy graduates and citizens from across the Sixth District.
The board interviews all applicants before making recommendations to Graves.
Last week, Graves notified each student by phone of their nomination. Students interested in being appointed to a service academy in the future can find out more information by contacting Graves’ district office in Kansas City or by visiting www.graves.house.gov.